C Bills or Salvage?

[Panpiper]

Looking at some of the playthrough videos, it seems to me that the value of some individual salvage items can easily match that of a full negotiated C Bill payment. It perhaps remains to be seen just how much of a markdown one gets if trying to sell off that salvage for C Bills, but it certainly looks to me that opting for maximum salvage would probably be more lucrative in the long run. Though it would certainly far less certain than taking cash.

Does anyone have any better insight into this?

(I don't know how I am going to manage the wait for another three weeks. I was an early backer but cheaped out and didn't go for the beta.)

 

[Chaon]

I think I saw that selling some items would get 10% of their value but don't quote me on that.

So if that is what they sell for, then salvage of 1,000,000 is not going to be worth all that much if you sell it off. The value of salvage is that you don't have to buy it. And can use your money to pay for repairs and refits.

 

[imperialus]

That would seem to be in keeping with the tabletop rules. At least when you look at the various merc campaign sourcebooks which to be fair have always been a little 'fuzzy' regarding hard numbers.

Generally speaking whenever I've played a merc focused Battletech game, the cash is there to keep fuel in the tanks and ammo in the bins, while salvage is how you actually get new stuff.

Also, if things go sideways on a mission and a mech gets a torso blown off then you better hope you have cash in the bank in order to duct tape a new one on.

 

[Galaga Galaxian]

You also cannot sell salvaged mech sections/components/parts IIRC. You have to collect 3-of-a-kind to rebuild a mech before you can consider selling it.

 

[Capnflintlock]

Salvage is vastly more important than C-bills, the main reason being that you can actively try and collect something you find on the battlefield. Stores might not have what you want, or might have marked up prices. I'd say collect enough C-bills to be able to afford what you need to get by for a while, and then focus on reputation and collecting scrap.

 

[rip4ever]

Components are components and I definitely saw the ability to sell them. IIRC, the price was -10% due to not having a positive rep with the system the market was in.

 

[Panpiper]

I was watching CohhCarnage's stream, and the first store he checked had a +2 accuracy PPC for sale for ~300,000 C Bills. That was nearly half the starting capital if I recall. None the less, I could see myself deciding to drop half that cash to pick it up, if it came my way, even that early. To hit rolls are king and PPCs rule.

I have no idea how I am going to maintain any financial discipline in this game. ;-)

 

[Exemplar Voss]

The big thing is negotiation makes this somewhat more complicated a question. You only get a priority pick for every 4 pieces of salvage total, and the sliders aren't all or nothing.

For example at the end of the HBS/Paradox stream

(about 56:00 in the youtube video), you can see the sliders.
Pay bottoms out at 84K, sits in the middle at 500K, and tops out at 932K, salvage tops out at 3/14, but but the starting middle position is 2/8. The 4th position is 2/11, which sets the pay at its 2nd position, about 300K. 2nd position for salvage in this contract is 1/5, which is pretty bad, bottom might be 0/2 which seems completely unacceptable, but for 900K (3 months of financial safety), you might consider it worthwhile.

Now, considering it, losing ~220,000 C-bills (almost a month's expenses at this point) is pretty bad, especially for 3 random pieces of salvage and no more choices. If it was 3/12 (and therefor another pick), it would probably be worthwhile. But not if you end up a heat sink, machine gun and small laser.

 

[CuCulainn]

Looking at some of the playthrough videos, it seems to me that the value of some individual salvage items can easily match that of a full negotiated C Bill payment. It perhaps remains to be seen just how much of a markdown one gets if trying to sell off that salvage for C Bills, but it certainly looks to me that opting for maximum salvage would probably be more lucrative in the long run. Though it would certainly far less certain than taking cash.

Does anyone have any better insight into this?

(I don't know how I am going to manage the wait for another three weeks. I was an early backer but cheaped out and didn't go for the beta.)

If the economy works like it did in TT then mercs "Cannot" buy most parts and new mechs. until you get pretty big and have a good rep salvage is how you get stuff.

remember the economy of the MW4 campaign Sensors cockpits and gryros should be really hard to get hip and shoulder actuators were snarky too.. We took lots of contracts where the client paid transport logistics and ammo and we got 40-60% salvage with first pick and made a killing.

I hope they make it a struggle...

 

[Chaon]

You can buy mech pieces from stores and when you get three of the same variant you can rebuild it.

We haven't seen any complete mechs for sale. Yet.

 

[Nichino]

Yea, I was debating this when watching the last Dev stream. I'm sure there will be times I need one more than another, but hard to decide which would be a better focus. C-bills pay the bills, repairs and hires as well as buy the weapons with manufacturer bonuses. But salvage gets you chassis pieces and a good stockpile of parts. Probably have to wait for a firmer idea on how much we can sell parts for.

 

[ronhatch]

So far, it looks to me like C-Bills vs. Salvage is going to be a tough call... which is what I want from game options.

Cohh briefly entered the "Sell" page near the end of his last stream, and the AC/10+ that he had just bought for 176,000 could be sold for 19,600. We know buying has 10% more expensive prices at the starting reputation level, so the base value would be 160,000... and well... I guess if the standard sell price is 1/8th the base value (20,000), then it's a -2% when selling at this reputation level. Those numbers sound like typical ones that might get chosen, and the math works out, so I'm going with that.

In any case, getting back to the real topic... the selling is bad enough that you really only want salvage that you're going to use. Still, I'm confident that I can find a use for ANY salvage, so I'm not too worried about it not saving me money vs. trying to buy it from a store. My impression is that the real key will be that you must have those C-bills to pay monthly operating costs and all the other expenses that you get hit with from time to time. So since selling is horribly inefficient, you'll need to take the cash at least sometimes.

Now add reputation into the mix, and trying to get to where you no longer have that 10%/2% penalty...